Happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentines inspired by our son Jacob's Kindergarten class
In the spirit of expressing our love and appreciation, we’ve spent the last week making Valentine's cards.
(And we are taking Friday away from the office to celebrate our own Love! You’ll get a full report next week. ☺)
Because we’ve seen too many coaches and holistic practitioners get sucked into the burnout vortex, we wrote a special Valentine’s blog post to help you use the spirit of Valentine ’s Day to avoid burnout in your own business.
We have seen too many coaches and holistic practitioners who are on their way to burnout, because they either have too many clients and no time for themselves.
Or they don’t have enough clients and their worry (and attempts to just make ends meet) burns them out.
However, YOU can steer clear of burnout.
The answer is hidden within the spirit of Valentine’s Day!
How do you know if you’re heading toward the Burnout Vortex?
On a scale from 1-10, how much do you LOVE your business? And we mean
REALLY LOVE your business.
To help you answer this question, here are some additional questions:
- Does it light you up and excite you?
- Do you dread the thought of getting up to go to "work?"
- Does it worry you and stress you out?
- Are you delighted with some parts of your business (like the actual
work of supporting others), but hate other parts (like the bookkeeping)?
Go ahead and answer the question now: On a scale from 1-10, how much do
you LOVE your business?
Here's the scale:
Score of 1-3 = The Burnout Vortex
Score of 4-7= Maintaining (but probably not feelin’ the love).
Score of 8-10 = Truly Thriving!
Everyone wants to be in the range of 8-10, but may not know HOW to get there.
So we want to make sure you have some distinctions and tips to move you away
from the Burnout Vortex and toward Truly Thriving!
First, let's talk about what it means to be Truly Thriving...
True success means consistently hanging out in the “Truly Thriving” range.
And when someone who is truly thriving dips into the 6’s or 7’s (which is inevitable),
they quickly ascend back up to at least an 8 by using some of their own pre-determined
structures.
This is WHY they are able to maintain the level of Truly Thriving.
Maintaining is really to just be going along, doing the day-to-day, but not really excited about it.
The last category is the Burnout Vortex. Unfortunately, too many coaches and holistic practitioners are either living in the Burnout Vortex or just on the edge (and some even believe becoming successful = burnout).
What’s the remedy to steer clear of the Burnout Vortex?
The secret is hidden within the spirit of Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is the one day of the year that is fully devoted to love.
Why?
Is it because Hallmark says so? ☺
Of course not!
Valentine's Day is a only a day devoted to love if YOU say so…if YOU make love important.
Whether you have someone you call your lover or whether you are single and your lover is you…
You get permission to devote the entire day to LOVE!
You get to indulge in whatever makes you feel and appreciate LOVE. It could be chocolate, baths with rose petals, candlelight dinners and beautiful music…
Or you could make it a regular day of your life.
The choice is yours.
But the truth is, as an entrepreneur, you have permission to make LOVE important EVERY DAY.
You can turn any day you want into Valentine’s Day.
And when you show YOURSELF a great deal of self-love by making self-care important, YOU will avoid the Burnout Vortex.
Here are a list of tips to help you avoid burnout:
- Create clear office hours when you answer your phone and email. And then don't answer your phone when you're office isn't open. We take weekends off (unless we're leading an event, in which case, we take the Monday and Tuesday for our rest days). We also finish work by 4pm at the latest and devote this to family time.
- Create structures for rest and rejuvenation.Studies show that one day away from screens is like seven days of rest! Make sure you have clear rest days to let your mind relax (which frees yourself up for more creativity!)Be sure to find a few things that REALLY rejuvenate your mind, body and soul.We have found that regular massage and bodywork is ESSENTIAL to our ongoing well-being. Without it, we find ourselves feeling a little cranky and not being as focused.(If you're still not quite making the money you want to make, you can always create a trade for bodywork with another practitioner who values your services as much as you value bodywork!)
- Schedule 15-30 minute breaks every 90 minutes. Studies show short breaks every 90 minutes increase your productivity and creativity dramatically.You can take breaks to meditate, dance, go for a walk or whatever you need to rejuvenate yourself.
It’s YOUR life; you get to live it on YOUR terms.
The secret is to set aside the time AHEAD of time, so you don’t have to get burned out or exhausted in order to finally relax.
Okay, we’re off to take a short “Thrive Break” before our team meeting.
We hope you enjoyed this article.
